NRHA Applauds White House Rural Task Force
With decisive rural victories in Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania, rural America became a significant factor in the election of President Trump. In a letter the day after the election, NRHA strongly urged the President-Elect to make rural health care a priority in his administration and to build upon the White House Rural Council established under President Obama. Later today, in an executive order, President Trump will take the important first step in that direction by establishing a White House Rural Task Force.
The Task Force will certainly have its hands full. During the recent Great Recession, rural counties shed 200,000 jobs per year and rural unemployment stood at nearly 10 percent. Economic recovery has not returned to rural America. In fact, 95% of the jobs that returned after the Great Recession were urban, nor rural jobs. In most rural communities, rural health care represents the largest, or second largest, employer in the community. But even that is threatened. Because of extensive reimbursement cuts, seventy-eight rural hospitals have closed since 2010. One in three rural hospitals is financially vulnerable; at the current closure rate, more than 25% of rural hospitals will close in less than a decade. Closures of this magnitude will create a massive national crisis in access to emergency services as well as detrimentally harm rural economies.
If the Task Force is to meet its goal of reinvigorating the economy of rural America, it must remember that healthcare is a critical component of economic stability. You cannot have a healthy rural economy without a healthy rural community. Quality rural healthcare saves lives, provides skilled jobs, attracts businesses, and reinvests millions back into rural communities. In fact, one rural hospital can represent as much as 20% of the local economy. Promoting policies that keep rural hospital doors open and invest in the chronic workforce shortages plaguing rural America should be a “no brainer” for the task force.
The well-intentioned White House Rural Council under the Obama Administration made important inroads but left much work undone. This task force must act swiftly and boldly as a cohesive force within the administration advancing policies that allow rural communities to prosper and grow. We hope today’s executive order is a starting point. Rural America is waiting.